On Chatsworth Farm: 21st Century Farming with the Wasyliks in Vermilion

by Mary Bailey
with photos by Charlotte Wasylik

It sounds like something out of novel. New York City girl meets Alberta boy. He had always wanted to farm; she grew up reading Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables. In the early 90s they married, began to farm and started a family.

I think that’s what they call a leap of faith.

Now, a quarter century later, the Wasylik family (Rick, Johanna, Charlotte, Nicholas and Alexander) is redefining the term family farm.

“Everybody here has their own area,” says Johanna. Rick (who also has a construction company) and the boys take care of the machinery, the buildings, the crops and the cattle. Charlotte developed the poultry side of the business, the agritourism program and the direct sales model. Johanna tends the large vegetable and flower gardens and keeps all the balls in the air (like moms and farm wives do).

“It’s been one learning curve after another,” says Johanna. “Like learning how to drive. I was a New Yorker, I didn’t drive. But here, if you don’t drive, you don’t leave the farm.”

Like many local farms Chatsworth sold beef and lamb locally and occasionally. “It was a one off,” says Johanna, “but I sold eggs every week. I went into labour with Charlotte while selling eggs—right back at it with a baby and a box of eggs. Charlotte took over at 14 once she had her learner’s permit.”

Last year changed everything. “In 2020 there was a need for people to find good food easily and locally,” says Charlotte. “We started delivering to Edmonton, then to Calgary.”

What they sell changes seasonally—beef, lamb, chicken eggs and Red Fife wheat berries, flour and bran throughout the year, goose and duck eggs in the spring and broiler chickens and turkeys in the fall.

Johanna credits Charlotte for setting up their online farm direct sales. “She designed the website, the labels, the packaging, she does most of the social media and keeps spreadsheets of who wants what and arranges delivery,” says Johanna.

Charlotte is an accomplished birder, which may explain her love of poultry, and she was chosen for a coveted internship at the Long Point Bird Observatory in Ontario. She is a graduate of the NAIT Event Management program which she puts to good use at her job with the local credit union and in the family business. In 2020, she started virtual classes for students around the world.

“Students in Ontario, Italy and Nigeria, a family in Scotland, a group in California,” she says. “The animals are there. I always have my phone with me. I just go with what the animals are doing.”

As we walk around the farm, Charlotte points out the different breeds of laying hens. “We have Easter Eggers, Olive Eggers, Lavender and Chocolate Orpingtons, Marans, Wyandottes and Mosaics,” she says. The Olive Egger eggs are the most delectable olive green.

“The turkeys are heritage breeds, Ridley Bronze and Bourbon Red. I bought eight-month-old birds last year and they are now our breeding stock. We are so impressed with the heritage genetics,” says Charlotte. “They take longer to finish, but overall they are so much hardier and healthier.”

Several of the young birds are still in the barn and in protective chicken tractors in the pasture. When they are old enough, they will join the other ducks, geese and chickens happily milling about with the kittens and watched over by Ash the Red Heeler and Lizzy, the big gentle Great Pyrenees/Maremma cross, who loves the occasional pat on the head and chuck under the chin.

We walk on to greet the sheep and young cattle (the rest of the herd is on summer pasture). Mia the quarter horse, hanging out in the longer grass with the ram, ambles over.

My last question. Why Chatsworth Farm? Johanna laughs and says, “we have meadowlarks here so I thought Meadowlark Farm, but Rick said ‘too twee’. Chatsworth is the name of the old school district. We can just see the old abandoned school from the porch. It’s also the name of a women’s group started in 1947 by local farm women, called the Chatsworth Country Club. I joined and took the kids to meetings, automatically they had about 20 aunties. Charlotte joined herself almost 10 years ago.”

As I drive back to the city, I’m thinking about the Chatsworth Country Club and the support and encouragement the women gave young Johanna—new to farming, new to marriage, new to country life (and to Canada) and the support it has given to so many women over the decades in a similar situation. I’m also thinking about Charlotte and her siblings and their full-on commitment to farm life. There is hope for us yet.

“I love that we are all together as a family, though that brings its own challenges,” says Johanna. “I love that I don’t have to work in an office. I love the chance to work outdoors even when the weather is crummy. I love being able to grow and raise food. I think it’s a huge privilege to look after our patch of soil.

“I love that we can share what we do and how we do it.”